MY 21ST FAVORITE DISNEY VILLAIN

THE STEPMOTHER

 

FROM "CINDERELLA"

WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

I know her name is actually Lady Tremaine, but come on we all know her best as the Stepmother since that what she's always referred to among the characters. In fact, they only call her by her real name once in the picture and that's at the ball when the Stepsisters arrive. And even that goes by quickly to the point where the viewer can easily miss it. So I'm going to call her the Stepmother for the entirety of my description of why I enjoy her as a villain.

 

In the film's Prologue, (narrated by the actress who voiced Cruella De Vil in Disney's "One Hundred And One Dalmatians") we first meet the Stepmother in a dark room stroking her cat as she and her daughters gaze down the window to watch Cinderella and her Father interact in beautiful broad-daylight. And just by looking at them at first glance, you know right off the bat that they are evil. The Stepmother looks sinister, her daughters look bratty, and the cat looks like an evil demon (seriously look how lifeless his eyes are). And they don't even say a word. We discover through the narration that Cinderella's Father married the Stepmother because he wanted to give his daughter a Mother's care, since his Wife died (for unknown reasons), and even though I can already assume how the Stepmother pretended to be nice to Cinderella and her Father with her polite and well-mannered charm and grace (I mean look how she uses it to suck up to the Grand Duke later in the film), I still find it interesting that none of them have ever caught on to her evil. I mean seriously, just look at the Stepmother's family, they don't at all look friendly. But I suppose that manipulation has to be one of her best traits, since she uses it very well on Cinderella. But I'm getting ahead of myself.


 

Anyway, in the scene that follows after her first on-screen introduction, it's revealed that her true evil and selfish nature are shown after the death of Cinderella’s Father. And as Cinderella is crying her eyes out on her Father's death-bed, the Stepmother and her daughters are standing in the dark corner of the room, as she's shown to be smiling instead of crying. Now I maybe reading a little too deep into this, but judging by her wicked smile, the way she stares at Cinderella and her Father out the window, and how the Father just so happens to suddenly die after marrying her, a part of me feels like that she may have had a hand in his death. I know many people just see that evil grin as a way of her expressing joy that she has total control over Cinderella and the fortune. But I don't know, it just seems a little too convenient that the Father died of a (most likely) illness after marrying this villain, when he already seemed to look perfectly healthy when we last saw him with Cinderella; and considering that the Stepmother is a slimy character who can think of ways to subtly outwit someone, it does seem possible that she could have poisoned him or something. I'm not saying it’s the case since the film never claims that she killed him, but the vagueness of the Father's death and the Stepmother's back-story does leave it open enough for our own personal interpretation.

 

Now that she has the money and has to take care of Cinderella, what does she do? She wastes all the money on her daughters to give them a rich and glamorous life, as she brainwashes Cinderella to serve her like a slave from dusk till dawn. Why is she so cruel to Cinderella? Because she never gave birth to her, and is jealous that she's better than her daughters. And man does she love to work her death. When we first see the Stepmother in present time, we hear her voice telling Cinderella to come over to her bed, in a dark bedroom where the light of the windowpane reflecting on Cinderella looks like she's behind bars in a prison. And as the Stepmother's cat leaps on to her shadowy bed, and crawls into the darkness, we see both of their menacing eyes appear out of the shadows, to suddenly seeing her pet her cat like a Bond villain as she lifelessly glares at Cinderella without even blinking. God is that a chilling scene. What follows during the scene is she gives Cinderella more chores because one of her daughter's thought she pulled a prank on her. But let's be honest, even if she knew that Cinderella wouldn't be foolish enough to do something mean to her or her daughters, she would probably just flood her with chores anyway because she has a B.S. reason that she can use against her. And instead of just flat out yelling at her to do more chores for her false action, she just calmly fixes her tea, and politely but tauntingly tells her what to do, as she will occasionally just shout at her for whenever she gets interrupted or wants to make her demands clear as she stares at her with those intense eyes. Another trait that's interesting about the Stepmother is even though she controls Cinderella's life, she never physically abuses her, or just flat out says "no" to her face. When Cinderella stands up for herself claiming that she's allowed to go to the ball, rather than just simply saying "You can't go", or violently throwing her out of the room for stepping out of her place; she allows her to go if she can finish her chores and find something to wear, only to just give her more stuff to do leaving her with no time to make her dress at all, as she and her daughters giggle behind her back.



Her daughters Drizella and Anastasia may not have the charm and class as their Mother does, but they still are just as mean as their Mother is to Cinderella, who are both equally jealous of her as well because of her beauty, talent, and kindness. They're flat out ugly with their big noses, giant sized feet and freakishly large asses. They aren't anywhere near musically gifted. And their manners and self-control is completely dysfunctional, since they are always seen yelling and bickering at each other. But as heavily flawed as they are, their Mother still tries her hardest to make them look and act as perfect as Cinderella is with her undying patience and determination. But even she too loses her cool on a few occasions, especially how she yells and bangs on the piano keyboards when Cinderella interrupts the music lesson she gives them, after telling them about self-control. The Stepsisters themselves also aid their Mother to make Cinderella's life miserably, such as making fun of her, giving her more chores to do, and blaming her for things that she didn't do. Only instead of being subtle with their hatred towards Cinderella like their Mother, they yell at her and forcefully tell her what to do at every chance they get. The worst thing they do to Cinderella out of everything I just mentioned is when they tare her dress apart. The Stepmother of course doesn't say "rip her dress apart" or "oh look girls, she's using the pieces of clothes that you threw away". She just subtly gives the Stepsisters the word to sabotage her dress by commenting on the things she used to make her dress, and asking what her daughters think of the dress. That's it. The scene of the Stepsisters violently ripping off her dress by the way, almost feels like a rape scene. The Stepmother walks uncomfortably close to Cinderella with a rape like face, and the editing and pacing for when the Stepsister's destroy her dress looks pretty disturbing. Actually, the scene itself also looks like something out of a zombie movie, because the way the Stepsister's just surround Cinderella and attack her reminds me of zombies ripping off a person's flesh. After when the Stepmother calmly tells them to stop as Cinderella is standing in the middle of the room wearing a ripped-up dress (did I mention that it belonged to her late Mother), the Stepmother adds insult to injury by cruelly bidding her "Good night" with a cheerful grin.



As if having a wicked Stepmother, and two spoiled Stepsisters controlling Cinderella's life isn’t enough of a burden for her, the cat also takes part in making her life miserable. He makes more messes for Cinderella to clean up, tries to prevent Cinderella's mice friends from helping her, and loves to see Cinderella get in trouble just as much as her Stepsister's do. But as much as he likes to cause mischief toward Cinderella, he spends most of his time going after the mice then he is with making her life a living hell. His method to kill the mice is mostly based on stealth by slowly and silently sneaking up on his victim and devouring the mouse when the time is right. The best example that show's his method is when he sneaks up on poor Gus, as he ignores Jaq's attempts from pulling on his fur. That moment when Gus stares right inside his open jaws as he lets out a lion roar is easily his scariest moment in the film. And if it wasn't for Jaq's quick actions, Gus would have been breakfast. The cat does however chase after his prey when they're in plain sight, but that's usually when they're cornered or if they piss him off right in front of him. And just like later great evil felines of the Disney villains rogue's gallery like Shere Khan and Scar, he too is just as quick and slick as they are, as he enjoys fiddling around with his claws. The only few major differences are he's a supporting character, he doesn't talk, and on top of it, he acts more devilish than he acts just as classy as them, or hell even his owner. Look at that grin on his face, its more sinister and evil than any of the other Disney felines in the cannon. He enjoys causing mischief and watching people suffer so much that it seems like that's his only joy in life (aside from being praised). He's so evil and devil-like that he's even given one of the many the names of Satan, which is Lucifer. I can totally see this cat sitting on Satan's lap being petted as he watches people being tortured in the fires of hell with glee.



If you were to ask anybody what the Stepmother's scariest scene in the whole entire movie is, chances are that 99% of the people you ask will say the scene when she realizes that Cinderella was the lady who danced with the Prince at the ball. Just how she squints her evil eyes as the picture begins to darken and that everything suddenly goes to silence, where the only sense of light or color in the scene are her bright green eyes is chilling to bone. Every time I see that moment I get goosebumps for how unsettling she looks, and how all the life in that scene just seems to be drained out because of that stare. Actually, the whole scene where she creeps up the stairs to lock Cinderella in her room to prevent her from being with the Prince is a scary scene in general. Just watching the way she slowly walks in the shadows with an emotionless stare as the music goes from eerie, to dramatic is just as horrifying as watching a horror monster like Nosferatu creep around in a dark and shadowy Gothic environment.



When Cinderella does escape from her room, and runs down the stairs to wear the slipper, the Stepmother makes one final attempt of keeping her as a slave by simply tripping the footman carrying the glass slipper which causes it to shatter on the floor. The cruel thing about this move is not only will Cinderella remain as her slave, but the Grand Duke and the footman are more than likely up for a beheading from the hot tempered King. And what does she do as the Duke is crying and fearing for his life; she just stands there with a smile that says "Oh well, sucks for you". But as luck would have it, Cinderella still has the other slipper, and the look of shock from the Stepmother when she sees the slipper is just priceless. Usually most Disney villains would get a big and climatic defeat that mostly leads to death. But with her on the other hand, her defeat is just summed up by that one look where everything she had is now suddenly lost. We don't even see her again after she makes that face, which is what makes this simple defeat so efficient.

The Stepmother may not have magical powers (at least without counting the sequels), an army of minions or soldiers, a big motivation, or even a climatic defeat like many other Disney villains. But that's what makes her such a unique villain. The fact that she has total control over someone's life is unbelievably cruel. Her lack of anger and outbursts where she mostly just stands there smiling and acting elegantly is unsettling and helps make her actions seem unpredictable. The moments that she does get where she yells and looks mad are terrifying to the point where you don't want to set her off again. And to have her daughters and pet cat assist her with her abuse towards Cinderella are more than enough to make her life hell on earth.  

"It was upon the untimely death of this good man, however, that the stepmother's true nature was revealed: cold, cruel, and bitterly jealous of Cinderella's charm and beauty, she was grimly determined to forward the interests of her own two awkward daughters."
-Narrator

LOVING YOU

On January 8th, I officially announced that I will from now on (until I say other wise) be reviewing Elvis material on the day that he was born and on the day that he died. And since I started to revive this series of Elvis reviews by reviewing his debut film "Love Me Tender"; I'm going to proceed with the second film he stared in which is...



Elvis stars as Deke Rivers, a local delivery man who has a hidden talent for singing, shaking his hips, and playing guitar which catches the interest of a women named Glenda (Lizabeth Scott) who’s a manager for a country band. Glenda asks Deke to join the band on their tour, and despite having second thoughts, Deke eventually tours with the band after being fired from his first steady job. Deke quickly becomes the hit of the show by attracting crowds of screaming young girls. But as Deke's popularity begins to grow, Glenda stages a few publicity stunts (such as paying people to bad mouth him, and pick a fight with him) so that he would gain more attention among people. As he deals with the stress of his career, he starts to have a love relationship with a country singer touring with him named Susie (Dolores Hart) only to discover that she will be fired from the group because of his fame towards audiences. From this point on, Deke finds himself struggling with his career where he isn't sure if he should leave it, or stick with it.



Given the film's concept, this in my opinion should have been Elvis' first movie! Instead of casting Elvis as a supporting character where we have to wait almost a half hour for his first appearance, he's the star and focus of the film, where his first on-screen appearance only takes a few minutes. And rather then setting the film in the old west and have him sing very little where his overall presence feels out of place, the film is set in modern times and gives him 7 songs to sing instead of four. And to top off everything else, the film's story is centered on a fictional take of Elvis' career at the time, as opposed to being a drama of Elvis getting in the middle of a failed robbery.  Plus the film is shot in beautiful Technicolor, instead of being shot in black and white. So the film does sound like a great upgrade to Elvis' first film in his career, and in many ways it is.



Even though Elvis seems to be playing himself, that's because he is pretty much is judging by the premise, and the film does seem perfectly aware of that. Sure the film twists a lot of things around, and even gives Elvis a different name so people don't mistake it as personal biography that stars Elvis, but there are still plenty of things that are similar to his career. He was a musician who came from nothing, and became big for his hidden talent of singing and dancing. The reception that his character gets from the older crowd and young crowd (Especially girls) by his singing and movements was pretty much same the reactions that he received in real life. And the manager Glenda who was stirring up controversy to make Elvis' character stand-out to people everywhere, is very similar to how Elvis' real life manager Colonel Tom Parker made Elvis both famous and infamous by causing some of the controversy that surrounded Elvis at the time. So it all makes perfect sense why Elvis would be playing himself considering that a good chunk of the film is loosely based on his career and reception among audiences. And despite that Elvis is playing Elvis; he still knows how to carry an emotion as an actor. You feel his happiness with his success. You sense the stress that he has with his career. And you fall under the emotion whenever Elvis confronts his manager. His best moment where his acting becomes powerful is when he tells his manager about his secret past, which is a subtle but very deep scene that Elvis nails. Elvis also gets a badass scene where he fights a teenager (Who looks older than the cast of "Grease") where he knocks him into jukebox that starts to play rock music as he finishes the fight.



Elvis' acting is great in this movie, but as good as his acting is, his best moments are when he sings and dances, which is what he does best of all! The film may have 7 songs (Which is more than what "Love Me Tender" had to offer), but he does sing many of the 7 songs that he's given more than once. The song "Loving You" that the film is named after is sung three times in the film. The first time it’s sung in the film is during the opening credits, but instead of being slow moving like how he later sings it in the film, it’s sung a little faster with more of rockin' beat that still keeps its romantic approach. I will say that I do like the opening credits version of the song a lot better than the actual song itself, but that doesn't at all mean that the regular version of the song and how he performs it is bad because it isn't! Actually it’s quite enchanting, where it starts out nice and quite, to going full out romantic when the music kicks in and just builds and builds as Elvis is singing it. The first time we ever see Elvis sing on-screen in the film is when he sings "Got A Lot Of Livin' Do", that's also the last song that he sings in the film; and the song and the way Elvis sings it is so catchy and energetic that it makes for solid bookends for the amount of times he sings in the film. The best moment when he sings the song is the last scene where he sings it in a theater as he walks and dances down the aisles as the audience claps along to the song. Then you have the song "Mean Women Blues" that stands-out as the coolest musical scene in the movie that has a hip rhythm and beat as Elvis turns on the jukebox to play the background music for his song as he performs it for a crowd of (Old looking) teenagers in the middle of a restaurant. The song "Let's Have A Party" is another rockin and catchy tune where Elvis sings and swings his hips around in front of an audience of screaming girls as he comically breaks his guitar strings when the song ends. But as good as the song is I found it pretty lazy that the writers and editors decided to have him sing the song literally back to back. Sure they have him sing different lyrics when he sings the song directly after the scene when he first sings it, but could they have him sing a different song instead, and have him either sing the full song the first time he sings, or have him sing the second version later on in the film? It just feels unnecessary. The least good song that Elvis sings in the film is "Hot Dog" and even though it’s not bad or forgettable for that matter, it’s really just a standard 50's song that only runs for a very short period of time. I don't even think its two minutes long.



The color in the film looks bright and colorful with the sets, costumes, and lightning that makes the film more visually interesting than "Love Me Tender". The best scenes where the color and lightning are at their prettiest are in two scenes of the movie when Elvis sings. The first one is when Elvis performs “Lonesome Cowboy” on a dimly lit stage, where the scene is mostly driven with blue, purple, and yellow, from the lightning, the costume that Elvis is wearing, and the guitar he's carrying. My favorite moment during that sequence is the opening where the spotlight immediately hits Elvis as we jump cut to him a few times as we find ourselves getting closer and closer towards him. And when the song finally picks up with its beat and choir, the dark stage where the only source of light is the spotlight on Elvis, begins to slowly light up on the musicians in the background. As for the song itself it’s beautifully sung by Elvis and his backup singers, has a nice country beat, and carries the tempo of a cowboy riding his horse. The second scene of the film where the color looks gorgeous, and is overall the best song and scene of Elvis performing in the film all together is when he sings the song "Teddy Bear". The set for the stage and the lighting mixed together with the flashy Cowboy suit that Elvis wears looks colorful and dreamlike. The song itself is so fun and catchy that it will never leave your brain once you hear it. And Elvis' on-stage presence as he coolly moves his hips and hits his guitar to the beat while singing is so incredible that you can't keep your eyes off him, as well as his movement and attitude making the song come out as a bit suggestive, instead of harmless and playful as many of us would think of this song as we listen to it. It's truly the highlight of the movie. If Elvis performing songs on stage throughout the film isn't enough for you, the film even treats us to a nicely edited together montage where we see Elvis perform short portions of his songs as we look at the highway and various signs to the town's where Elvis' character has been traveling too to perform.

Now as great of an upgrade as the film is to Elvis' first movie, there are still many problems with it. As spot on as the acting is in this film, the supporting cast of characters aren't that interesting, or even memorable. Deke's love interest Susan is cute, but nothing special. The band members that joke around are entertaining, but very forgettable. And the fading musician Tex (Wendell Corey) who's part of the tour and has a struggling love relationship with Glenda has a boring personality; his goal to get his career back on track, and fix his relationship with Glenda isn't at all engaging; and the scene when he and Glenda suddenly break-up in the film’s third act just felt forced in to add more drama to the picture. The only supporting character that's interesting and who I still found myself remembering after not seeing this film in years is Lizabeth Scott as Glenda. She has a fun sassy personality. Her attempts of causing controversy that could possibly lead to Deke's downfall is captivating. And her relationship with Deke and how she slowly changes her heart feels natural and at times emotionally powerful (Especially during their final confrontation). The set-up for the film of having it being loosely based on Elvis' career is more fitting for a film starring Elvis, than casting him as cowboy. And it does capture how his fame, success, and dispute towards people greatly despite the story being a complete work of fiction. But the story itself isn't really all that special. It actually gets pretty boring at times (Especially in the scenes that Elvis isn't in), and the film's pacing on a handful of occasions either move too slow, or feel rushed to the point where they feel hammered in (Particularity when Elvis is being called on stage to sing for the first time, just because he dances a bit, and his crazy workmate tells Glenda that he can sing). At least in "Love Me Tender" the story was interesting as the scenes of drama didn't feel dull or phoned in.

"Loving You" maybe a flawed film, but it's still in many ways better than "Love Me Tender", and is probably one Elvis' best films. Elvis' acting is great. The film's concept feels more like an Elvis movie. Lizabeth Scott gives a performance just as great as Elvis'. The songs and how Elvis performs them are unforgettable. And film's use of color makes it look visual distinct. If you can get past the forgettable cast of supporting characters (Not counting Scott); the simplistic and not so interesting plot line; and scenes that either move too slow or too fast, you'll find yourself enjoying this movie (Especially if you like Elvis). Unfortunately the film is hard to find on DVD, so until the film gets a re-release on DVD or Blu-ray, the only way to see the film is through "YouTube".

RATING 3/5